Power banks

[doc holiday13]

I have the first gen of the Anker 26800. It charged my phone and my InReach a few times over 9 days and I didn't worry about running out of power. I know some people have an axe to grind with Anker but mine has been fail safe for a decade. Used it in Peru, Idaho, Hawaii, WV, and VA. Its in my daypack and I rarely have to charge it.

https://www.anker.com/products/a1277?variant=37437650665622&top_filter=Over21%2C000mAh&collections_power-banks=undefined&Sort_by=Recommended

 

[zeroforhire]

The veektomx 10k ones off Amazon have all the ul backpackers buzzing. I love mine. Way better than my nitecore

 

[FAAFO]

I have the first gen of the Anker 26800. It charged my phone and my InReach a few times over 9 days and I didn't worry about running out of power. I know some people have an axe to grind with Anker but mine has been fail safe for a decade. Used it in Peru, Idaho, Hawaii, WV, and VA. Its in my daypack and I rarely have to charge it.

https://www.anker.com/products/a1277?variant=37437650665622&top_filter=Over21%2C000mAh&collections_power-banks=undefined&Sort_by=Recommended

Little surprised you haven’t used it in Arizona

 

[GoatPackr]

I've got a good supply of Milwaukee power tool batteries. I'm going to experiment with a USB adapter. 9 or 12 AH should run camp for a while and they are extremely durable.

 

[Desk Jockey]

My $0.02

- I bought a dark energy a few years ago. Works fine. Tough as hell. Relatively heavy.
- I have a few ankers. Have never had one fail on me but a buddy did on a trip.

If I were lucky enough to be in the field a LOT - guide, military, dream hunter - I think the ruggedness of the dark energy would be worth the weight and cost. For me - 10 days a year or so in the woods - my ankers ride in my pack in a ziplock and get set up to charge my gear usually at night or in camp. The added weight and armor costs don’t make sense.

Having seen a battery pack and a couple of plugs fail in the field, I prefer and use 2x 10k packs on long trips so I have some redundancy. I think the wires are a failure point so do like integrated plugs in case you can borrow one from a buddy or grab one at a gas station.

FWIW I wish there was a way to test these things. Right now, I just write the year I bought it on the outside in sharpie and I semi retire them when they start to give me a bad feeling.

 

[colic]

I just picked up a Nitecore NB10000 Gen 3 Ultra-Slim and a headlamp to try out. Anyone tried the Nitecore Carbon Battery 6K USB-C 6000mAh Power Bank? I almost bought it for day hunts, but figured the NB10000 was more versatile.

You'll love the nb10000. I've had mine for years now and it's solid. Super low profile, holds tons of charge, and it's crazy lightweight. I have no reason to even consider the carbon 6k battery, or any other power bank for deep woods hunting/camping at this point..

 

[doc holiday13]

Little surprised you haven’t used it in Arizona

If I draw an AZ tag, it'll be used there too

 

[Te Hopo]

I've got a good supply of Milwaukee power tool batteries. I'm going to experiment with a USB adapter. 9 or 12 AH should run camp for a while and they are extremely durable.

I have a similar setup for base camps, I find my Makita 6ah's keep everybody's gear charged up weeks.

For backpacking I use a Nitecore Carbon 10,000

 

[repins05]

I do the Milwaukee and makita batteries with battery mount usb. Works well.

 

[Taudisio]

I’m just going to throw this out there. I have no dog in the fight.

 

[100%DIYazCOUES]

I tried the dewalt battery thing last year. It worked fine but it’s pretty inefficient. For example, I realized a 6ah dewalt is only 6000mah(obviously….)Basically 1 full phone charge per battery. I bought a 60,000mah battery pack recently on sale cheap. Tested it, and that one battery pack will replace like 9 6ah dewalt batteries for charging stuff around camp!Just a much simpler setup that should work just as well, the batteries will stay charged for tool use/ back up

 

[Lando]

Do any of you have problems with your power banks keeping a charge in cold weather? I have and it sucks to have happen, so I was going to look into whether the ones geared toward hunting do any better in cold weather.

 

[Te Hopo]

I tried the dewalt battery thing last year. It worked fine but it’s pretty inefficient. For example, I realized a 6ah dewalt is only 6000mah(obviously….)Basically 1 full phone charge per battery. I bought a 60,000mah battery pack recently on sale cheap. Tested it, and that one battery pack will replace like 9 6ah dewalt batteries for charging stuff around camp!Just a much simpler setup that should work just as well, the batteries will stay charged for tool use/ back up

Yeah not quite, that's 6ah @ 18v so a LOT more than just a single charge, for me with my 3,800mah phone it's almost 5 charges with a 5v USB adapter.

Here's a little more info from here

whats better? 20,000 mAh 5V Battery or 9Ah 18v battery to use as portable power charger?

So I bought battery brick from Amazon.ca it was a 20,000 mAh, it's a 5v battery pack. I also just bought a Milwaukee 9 Ah 18v battery for my tools and beside it I saw an adapter that let me click o...

electronics.stackexchange.com

If a 5V 3A load was placed on both till they were dead which one would last longer.. and how would you calculate that?

• Load power consumption:
  5 V * 3 A = 5*3 V*A = 15 W.
• Amazon power bank energy:
  While 20 Ah (20,000 mAh = 20 Ah) at 5 V would store 5*20 V*Ah = 100 Wh of energy, I really doubt that the 20 Ah battery within really has a nominal voltage of 5 V. Most likely 5 V is the (boosted) output voltage of the thing, and the actual battery has a nominal voltage around 3.7 V. A 20 Ah 3.7 V battery stores 3.7*20 V*Ah = 74 Wh of energy. In Joules, that is 74 Wh * (3600 s)/(1 h) = 74*3600 Wh*s/h = 266400 Ws = 266400 J = 266.4 kJ.
• Milwaukee tool battery energy:
  9 Ah at 18 V stores 18*9 V*Ah = 162 Wh of energy. Again, in Joules, 162 Wh * (3600 s)/(1 h) = 162*3600 Wh*s/h = 583200 J = 583.2 kJ.

Assuming a 100 % efficient DC/DC conversion to 5 V:

• The power bank will supply the load for 266.4 kJ / 15 W = 266.4 kWs / 15 W = 17.46 kWs/W = 17.46 ks = 17460 s (slightly under 5 hours).
• The tool battery will supply the load for 583.2 kJ / 15 W = 38.33 kWs/W = 38330 s (almost 11 hours).

 

[100%DIYazCOUES]

Interesting info! Thanks for that, obviously there’s a ton I don’t understand about batteries!
However, in actual practice, those batteries definitely will not charge my phone 5x.more like 1-1.5 charges. I’m not sure what the problem is now

 

[Marbles]

The Anker 10,000 slim is pretty good for both weight to power and cost perspectives.

The power extender for the Fenix RM70 headlamp is a scaleable option. Lets you use 21700 batteries, so you can varry the amount of power you carry based on needs, and it is water/dust/shock resistant.

 

[rclouse79]

Ha, wish I found this thread a couple hours ago before I pulled the trigger on one with minimal research. I lost my anker charger. I don’t remember the stats on it, but it was one of the big ones that would charge a phone multiple times. I bought an off brand that had a bigger capacity for half the price. It was rated 4.5 stars vs 4.6 stars for the anker.